1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a backlight unit of a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly, to an edge-type backlight unit capable of local dimming.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are one of the most widely used types of flat panel displays (FPDs). To display images, an LCD includes a display panel consisting of two substrates having electrodes and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two substrates. However, as the display panel is a non-luminous element that may not emit light by itself, a backlight unit that provides light to the display panel may be required.
Backlight units are typically classified as either edge-type backlight units and direct-type backlight units according to the position of light source blocks. Light source blocks are located on a side behind a display panel in edge-type backlight units, whereas they are located behind the display panel in direct-type backlight units.
Since there may be a limit to how thin direct-type backlight units can be made, the recent trend toward slimmer LCDs is replacing the direct-type backlight units with edge-type backlight units.
Meanwhile, local dimming is a technology that changes brightnesses of only required regions among a plurality of regions to reduce power consumption of LCDs. The local dimming technology is being developed in various aspects.
For instance, in edge-type backlight units, however, light source blocks are located on a side of an LGP behind a display panel, instead of being located behind the display panel. Thus, light emitted from the light source blocks may be diffused over the whole surface of the LGP. Consequently, this may make it difficult to implement the local dimming technology that controls brightness for each region.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an edge-type backlight unit capable of local dimming.